This Day of Archaeology doesn’t see me out surveying or excavating, nor in a lab. Instead, it finds me sitting at my desk at MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University in front of my Mac Book Pro, two large Apple Cinema Displays (powered by an old, yet remarkably reliable, Mac Pro), an iPad, an iPod, an Android handset (Droid X2 if you are interested), and a Galaxy Tab 10.1. This (extremely technological) state of affairs results from the fact that its been a long time since I’ve actually stuck a trowel in the ground. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great field archaeology pedegree. I spent my elementary, highschool, and undergrad years (my father is an archaeologist as well) working on sites in the Northern Plains (mostly Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta – and a little bit in Montana and North Dakota). As a graduate student, I worked in Indiana and Illinois. My primary area of research as a graduate student (as well as my archaeological heart), however, rested in Egypt – Predynastic Egypt to be precise. I worked several seasons with Fred Wendorf and the Combined Prehistoric Expedition at Nabta Playa. The bulk of my work in Egypt, however, was at Hierakonpolis, where I excavated a variety of Predynastic household sites and did research into Predynastic household economy.

As a graduate student (and even as an undergrad, to be quite honest), I found myself increasingly interested in how information, computing, and communication technology could be applied to archaeology for teaching, research, outreach, and scholarly communication. Fast forward several years and I find myself sitting at my desk at MATRIX in front of a dizzying array of devices. My transformation from a “traditional” archaeologist (if you will – though, to be honest, is there really such thing as a “traditional” archaeologist) to a digital archaeologist is complete.